It is not that we have not been busy working very hard on our first release of the DVD for the last couple of months, but these last two weeks are even more intense - and more fun!

Quite literally 18 hour days seven days a week - and the finish line is in sight! And the more we see of the final product, the more excited we get ourselves.

But your support and participation in the biggest small community in the world is the fuel that keeps us going! And that is why I'd like to share something about the fun we have making our DVD Set for you!

As you can see on the picture, I just need corrupt outsiders to mildly threaten Ben to be creative, or else. Sometimes lovingly vacuuming a friend also goes a long way.

New stuff on the YAG SWAG STACK!

With our 555th 'like' on Facebook we unlocked the next giveaway prize in our 'Yet Another Giveaway'. All winners will be drawn on Galactic President's Day on June 7th, 2013.

So join the YAG SWAG STACK ATTACK! There are a few really cool prizes in the stash already and we will be adding a few more until June 7th!

I will also find something cool in celebration of our 300,000th view on the Blog - not bad considering we just started to really use it some time in July! But right now we need to go back to the in-buddhane working conditions here for Paintingbuddha.com and masterminis.net ;)

In case, you forgot, you can also win Ben's fabulous Happy Monk on a single-tear-inducing base ;)

He is as happy as we here at work ;) Only difference is the butterfly.

Monday, May 27, 2013

We can see the finishing line of our DVD Set ahead of us, so close and yet still a little ways to go. But I can't help but start of thinking what I will do the moment we have sent the DVDs to the manufacturer and then we got a few weeks to wait for the delivery...

Man, I'm gonna paint. Since November I have been watching, filming, editing and cutting material of people having fun while painting miniatures. But I never had time to do it myself! Since I have watched footage of Ben (twice), Stephan Rath and Volomir countless times now, I know that IN THEORY, I am a professional painter.

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.

- In practice, there is.

But what I will also do is play boardgames. I got the Horus Heresy Game laughing at me every morning and I will rip it open and play that poor sucker like a boss.

Which brings me to an event that my buddy Chris from the UK pointed out to me. You know, UK? Homeland of the whitemetal weekend warriors? That's right.

UK Games Expo 2013

While I tried to surgically remove tweeting birds from our video footage, Chris went to one of the hottest and geekiest gaming events the UK has to offer, the UK Games Expo 2013 - which was held this last weekend in Birmingham.

Imagine a place where everyone is a geek. People wear Munchkin hats, pray to the dice gods and turn over colorful leaves of paper in exchange for priceless treasures. Like for example a Giant D20.

A place where Daleks meet hot Cat Women in Latex suits... That's right, it wasn't a dream.

So if that kind of place is your cup of tea, I strongly encourage you to read the very splendid and worthwhile writeup dfb has written on this event. There are tons of fun pictures, there too - and yes, one of them has a hot femal, bi-pedal, carbon-based life form, descendant from an ape in a latex cat suit on them. I know, I know. you want to see more of the Daleks...

Saturday, May 25, 2013

As you may know from our earlier videos, I dedicate our company to Douglas Adams, the hoopiest frood to ever have worn a towel.

Not even two months ago we had to announce that our miniature painting DVD Project "Season 1: Target Identified" had to be postponed quite a bit as we simply were not happy with the quality that we would have delivered. We started from scratch.

Since then, we have quite literally worked tirelessly and for the most part around the clock, aiming at providing you with an even better product in a quality that we as hardcore nerds would buy ourselves. And this day is drawing nearer now.

Our DVD production is about 99.42% complete. Next week, so help us Murphy, we will send the DVDs off to production. That means, we are getting close to our release date.

As of today, we don't know when we will receive the final product yet, BUT with this update we would like to let you know that in honor of Galactic President Day on June 7th* (6x7, you get it?) we will announce our shipping date, all the extras you get in your package, some sneak peaks, trailers, and other fun stuff.

And since today is towel day, a day in celebration of the life of Douglas Adams, we decided to throw together a little 21 second teaser video for you. As we all know, 21 is only half the truth, so you know how long our release video on GPD6x7 will be, don't you?

Budget & Supporter Box

The Budget Box will be a no-thrills box which holds all the essentials you need to become a better painter: 6 full loaded DVDs in a beautiful DVD Collectors Edition and our Hero's Brad & Yanet (without the base) protected by a stylish metal box. And of course it had to be 42€!

But we are nerds, and we wanted more. So we stuffed all kinds of goodies into the deal and realized that - if we sold it for 42€ - we would be in the red. Not that red is a bad color, but hey,... A suporter box at 84€ is twice as hoopy as 42!You wonder what kind of hoopy gifts we will put in the Budget and the Supporter Box?

All the goodies that we will put in the respective boxes will be revealed on GPD6x7.Also, next week we will update our store, so no need to rush ;)

This post is full of win!

Just to recap, here's the plan:

- next week our DVDs will go to production.

- on GPD6x7 we will announce the shipping date of our DVD set

- shortly after GPD6x7 we will ship our DVDs!

And here is how you can win:

SHARE & ENJOY this post on Facebook.

EVERY SHARE will count not as one ticket, but this time as TWO tickets for the drawing of YAG SWAG STACK ATTACK on GPD6x7! I will repost this again on Monday, so you can even QUADRUPLE your winning chances! Stay hoopy, guys, gals and beings!

Zaphod

*since no such day existed, I ruled that henceforth June 7th shall be a Galactic Holiday in celebration of Galactic President's Day - and I did so by the powers I vested in myself. =]

Thursday, May 23, 2013

This goes to all of you who a) speak German and b) would like to learn how you could create your own fantastically weathered tanks and vehicles.

My good friend Farbfanatiker (Martin) is holding a 3-day-workshop in Göppingern, Germany, in the time from August 30th to September 1st.

Martin has worked on his technique over the last couple of months. And the results of what he painted are awesome!

So, if you would love to learn how to use an airbrush, how to professionally weather your vehicles and tanks and also would love to have fun with the Fellowship of the Nerds during an awesome workshop, I can only recommend you visit Martin's workshop.

He is a hoopy frood, who really knows where his towel is.

If you are interested, the registration takes place in the German forum 'Das Bemalforum'. All you need to do is click here. Also, check out his blog here.

Share & Enjoy!

Oh, and of course, IF you share this on Facebook, your share counts as a ticket to claim your stake to the YAG SWAG STACK ATTACK giveaway that we are currently holding.

There will be more news (and additional prizes) this Saturday in celebration of Towel Day!

We are in the home stretch for our DVD Set Season 1 at paintingbuddha.com - I think we can now safely use the Term 'soon(tm)' that Blizzard so beautifully used on such major releases like Starcraft II or Diablo III.

We are quite literally working around the clock and - if I may say so myself - the final product will be quite awesome. :)

Stay tuned, as the next few weeks will be full of news, updates, sneakpeaks and celebratory giveaways!

The second stretchgoal level - 555 likes on Facebook - is literally around the corner. And once we hit that, we will add the Limited Edition High Elf Army Book (limited to 1000 worldwide) to the already awesomely big prize stack.

Should you have missed it: You can win the 'Happy Monk' painted by Ben Komets!

And yes - sharing this post on Facebook will also enter you in this Giveaway! :)

Faeit 212 is back - temporarily

Being so busy with our own little project, I almost missed that Gary from Faeit212 has launched a temporary site at faeit.blogspot.com. The launch of his new site is still a little bit away, as he explains on his YouTube channel.

I love what he put as a tag line for his blog:

"We live in the End of Times, Besieged from every direction, and Our Existence is on the brink of Annihilation. Mankind has reached its boiling point, but Fear Not, Faeit is at hand, and it is I who shall uncover the secrets of our deliverance."

Check out his temp blog - and I am sure you will not miss when he Faeit 212 is back for good - with a vengeance!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Please be aware that this post is classified as news and therefore falls under 'Fair Use' as protected by international press law.

GW is positioned for one of the most awesome releases that have hit the shelves since... Well, since the Tau, because they were awesome, too :D

Kinda sad, that one has to be afraid to be excited about these kind of things.

As always, someone somewhere took a picture of something and posted it on the internet. And even though Faeit 212 was taken down due to a similar story about the High Elves, our legal representation advised me that posting pictures that were taken by someone other than GW clearly fall under 'news' and are protected by 'fair use'. Should they file a DMCA against me, they could be held liable and will face a counter DMCA for purgery. Our legal war stash is filled and insurred.

However, since we are still in discussion with our lawyer, we are not taking any chances until we have everything we can and can't do in writing.On the odd chance that GW takes down Warseer for posting unreleased product in this post and just to be on the safe side, I removed the link.

Update: Warseer has taken the post down already! I will follow suit later I guess.The whole world is posting these pics on FACEBOOK and I would love to see how GW shuts them down...

Let 'em take that blog down.

All I can say is that I am very sad that GW stifles the excitement in the community by their erradic behavior. I'd rather write about how awesome I think the new release will be instead of shivering with fear from the legal inquisition. If they really want to, they can take down ANY miniature painter's blog or site, no problems... Even the ones that love them.I still will buy one of those Wraithknights because they are awesome. And there are tons of good people working at GW. Just not in certain departments...Aaaand I exported my blog, just to be on the safe side ;)

If you have missed all of that hoopla outfall over GW's Legal Department:

I mean, come on! HOW AWESOME IS THAT!. I want 10 of them to paint, and one built for traffic in Berlin. Oh, that would be sweeeeet!

UPDATE: Loken, the owner of Apocalypse40k send me this comment:

"Please take down MY photos. I was authorized by Tony Cotrell from Forge World to post those and you took them without asking.

The proper way to do this is to post ONE photo and then send people to my site"

As a long time subscriber of Apocalypse40k I will gladly comply, even the use of news & pictures posted on a public blog falls under fair use.

I was not aware, that the GW Legal Department also held a lecture at those Horus Heresy Weekends. How dare I post community news and then even link to the source of those articles to SHARE & ENJOY! My bad.

Visit the awesome Apocalypse40k blog for all of the pictures. Or just look at one of the dozens of other blogs that posted them without linking back to them.

About use of my pictures and videos on masterminis.netSHARE & ENJOY policyIf I ever post pictures - be it from events, tutorials, reviews etc, you guys can share them on FB, g+ or your blog as much as you like. All I kindly ask is to put a link with the source into your post.Simple policy. I will now stop shrugging my shoulders because I got better things to do.

So far, Forgeworld only released pictures of the face of Mr. Fulgrim, which brought with it a lot of discussion. As you can see in many forums and on Forge World's FB site, not every one was happy with the - again - screaming face and wanted a more smirky, over-confident Fulgrim. Well, learn sculpting, damnit! :D Then you can even sculpt him Goldielocks' locks!

Now the first customers from Open Day shared their packaging material with us. And for the first time we can see the full Fulgrim grimly raging across a - what I can only describe - very well done battlefield.

I think, he even trumps Angron, which I already liked very much. Why, oh why, did I have to give my two Angrons away to you guys? Now I need to buy a new one :D

So, what do you think? Like it? I surely do.

It will be available on the Forge World site within the next few days I would think.

If you like it, you can get it! All you need to do is to share masterminis.net posts on your Facebook account and you will enter our YAG SWAG STACK ATTACK.

Three more subscribers and you will unlock the first free prize stretchgoal: If we hit 500 followers by our drawing date, we will add (drumroll) a Forge World Imperial Armor Modelling Masterclass (Volume One) to the stash, one of the best modelling guides money can buy. Wait - money can buy this? That's not special you think?Well, this one happens to have been signed by the full Forge World Design team ;)

Today I want to share some new sculpts (and paintjobs) of one of the hottest artists on the planet right now: I speak of no other than Raffaele Picca, aka Picster, who most of you know is member of the Massive Voodoo Crew, but what some of you may not know, also has his own little shop called Forged Monkey.

Raffa is not just one of the great painters and story-tellers of our time, but he has turned into quite a skilled sculptor. And since he just made a bust that I totally fell in love with, I hope that the late Spring will bring you similar feelings.

So here he is, the Tribe Chief Morrow. Just 26€ for an awesome bust. And in a a few weeks, our paintingbuddha.com DVD Set "Season 1 - Target Identified" can show you how you paint this friendly looking fellow.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

SHARE & ENJOY to win! By sharing this article with your friends on Facebook, you have a chance to win your piece of the YAG SWAG STACK!

OK Guys. You can blog safely now.

Should we help the GW Legal Department? No. So: Legal Department. This article is mine, go away. I don't want you to read it. Bye, now.

Biggest Threat to GW EVAR!

One of the Internet's most trustworthy sources, Bloodofkittens(not affiliated with FOX News) reported this well researched piece of soon-to-be-Pulitzer prize.

GW feels they need to protect their miniature business. But who protects us from their Legal department? Slash to the rescue!

Now, this time, our subject does not really fall into the 'miniature' business as such... Actually quite the opposite. How about a 20 FOOT TALL "Space marine"? Oh, sorry, I mislabled him. It's SLASH GORDON! He be slashing prices for you! DAUN!

That's right. The company Landmark creations has created this landmark in inflatable sex-toy. A 20 foot tall Gordons. I just wanted to order a unit of 12 for my squad, but they did not fit on legal gaming bases.

Well, I can understand that GW's Legal Department HAS TO react now. Their good reputation is at stake... I mean, what's next? A 70 storey sky-scraper in the shape of a Drop Pod? No, it has to stop and it has to stop now. So we all can be safe again.

Now, Landmark Creations of course cannot be held liable for nothing. Because they clearly know this to be an "electric blue Transformer-type action figure” as stated in their own press release.

What's really happening

Now the news behind the news. All of these giant action figures are being put up by bloggers all over the world. Personally, I think this is actually an ingenious tactic by the blogger community. In putting up these giant "Slash Gordons" all over the world, GW's Legal Departmant is bound to be confused and will focus on "shooting the big ones" and subsequently leaves us alone...

Well, one can dream... :D

I only hope that GW's Legal Department does not invoke the Emperor's Order of the Pointy Sticks to poke and slash at Gordon.

In the grim present of the 2ndmillenium there are onlyLegal Departments.

ZB: I know you must be tremendously busy right now and I appreciate the time you take for this little interview. It was about 2 weeks ago that Games Workshop filed a DMCA claim against your site Faeit 212. Like all of your followers, I guess all you got when you tried to log on that day was "This blog was removed"

GK: I had just landed in Salt Lake City Utah for the Valhalla event put on by Blue Table Painting, and was waiting to be picked up at the airport. So there was a lot of confusion at first as to what happened. I had an hour drive up to the lodging for the event, so I spent most of that time filtering through what had happened. A lot of that trip was spent on the phone with Larry from Bell of Lost Souls, and trying to ascertain exactly why and what was going on.

Google did not send any notice that the site was taken or was to be taken down, only that there was a DMCA claim against a post that had been put up. There still has been no notice the site was to be taken down, only that an article had been moved into draft form.

ZB: Oh, so you did not even know it was taken down then? When I saw the post from Larry of BoLS on Facebook about Faeit being down and BoLS landing page to be affected as well, I immediately checked what was going on (within a minute of Larry's post on FB). As soon as I checked for Faeit, all it said was 'this blog was removed'.

When you realized that the Blog had been taken down - where you actually able to access any of your files or was everything just 'gone'? Was there any chance to contact someone at Google? I am sure a lot of people would be interested what they can actually do in this kind of 'worst case' szenario.GK: Everything was just gone. Google has been slow to respond to my counter claim, but that is all still in the works. Its been taking them 2-3 days to respond to any email on the subject of my counter claim.

ZB: So - do you have access to your Google Blog content now? Can you salvage the hundreds of posts you had there?

GK: I do not have access to my Google Blog content atm. I am working through that though, but it is not necessary for me to move forward to have it.

ZB: Wow, that blows. So, what is your take on the 'legality' of that DMCA claim? As far as I am concerned, you posted pictures from some Chinese guy who photographed the White Dwarf. The 'Copyright' on that picture clearly lies with the photographer, so really the legal dispute should only be between GW and that person - at least that is my opinion. I mean, if you look at the content and sensitivity of Wikileaks I find it almost unreal that GW would take such a crass action. Did you consider legal councelling?

GK: As to my understanding of the legality of posting the pics, I have been advised that they easily fall under "fair use" in regards to news and commentary.

ZB: Yeah, I agree with you. Maybe we should all start hosting our stuff in Sweden or Iceland - GW would have absolutely no way of taking those contents down as their Internet laws protect such news.

But let's look ahead. I know you are busy getting your new site at your own server faeit212.com up. In your last video on your Youtube channel you indicated you might be up back up by Monday this week - is that schedule still holding? There's got to be a lot of work!

GK: The new site is going to take awhile. I announced this morning in video that the new site is behind schedule, and I am hoping to have it up the last week in May. Until then I am setting up a temporary site so that I can start posting up immediately. Eldar information should be coming in here soon, and I want to be on top of it.

ZB: Yes, the Eldar rumors are going wild - and I am looking forward to their new walkers and flyers... We all hope you will be back soon as your site has always been one of the most up-to-date sites with regards to rumors and news and - if I may say so - one of the most entertaining.

So it seems you will continue your tradition of Gaming News, especially on the GW/FW front. Will you also change things or add things to what you have done in the past?

GK: I think the primary thing, is that a lot will stay the same. I will still handle news and rumors for Warhammer 40k. That alone is a lot of work to do. There are also some more hobby/community works that I have been working on behind the scenes, and will finally launch with the new site. Of course I will be adding other games systems to new site as well, but for readers only looking to 40k news and rumors, it will be easy to navigate.

ZB: It sounds like your new site will be bigger and better - and not that far away. That's awesome news. Is there anything you would like to say to all of us who are waiting for your quick return?

GK: Just be patient. Right now even I do not know all that will transpire or make the new site. Sometimes you have to let the professionals be professionals, and offer up what they think would work. I really like who is working on the site with me right now, so I have a lot of confidence in the future of the site.

ZB: That sounds awesome! But now for the final question: GW took you down for posting some unreleased High Elves pictures. If I got my hands on an unreleased GW picture, let's say the full Eldar release pictures taken by some dood with an iphone and I sent them to you.... Would you post them before release?? :D

GK: As for pics, as you can guess, they are mostly out. There are some legal kinks I am working through.

ZB: Thanks, Gary, for the interview. We know you are busy and we appreciate your time! You are a hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is! Please keep us posted!

GK: The current status and up to date information of course will be posted on my youtube channel until a temporary site is up. Even then, the youtube site is the best place to find out the latest for site news. Personally, I prefer to report the news, rather than be the news, so I look forward to getting back to things as usual.

We here at masterminis.net will do everything to support you so you can rise from the ashes...

...like a Flamespyre Phoenix. No pun intended...

Yesterday, Natfka released this video update on his Youtube channel about whats going on:

Make sure you subscribe to his YouTube Channel for the latest news fresh off the press... We will continue coverage on the latest developments as well, so if you like that kind of stuff, please consider subscribing :)

Almost 100 people of you have shared our spectecular little YAG (yet another giveaway) over the weekend. Although we knew that our happy monk diorama by Ben Komets is an awesome prize to win, we did not expect this massive reaction to our post - especially on the blog's historically 'slow' weekends.

So let me take the opportunity to thank each and every one of you.

Two things I noticed.

First thing I noticed is that about one quarter of you have shared the wrong post :D But as Sun Tzu said, its all the General's fault if the rules were not understood ^^ You're good, you're in the draw ;)

Secondly, I noticed that we are both at almost 500 likes on Facebook as well as 500 followers on the blog.

So I changed the rules slightly and added MORE SWAG! :D

Giveaway summary

From the giveaway stash so far, one lucky reader can win "The Happy Monk" diorama - painted by Ben Komets. Two of you can win the 'Happy Monk' in a limited white-metal cast, one of you can choose between a Games Day Ticket or a limited Dark Angel Codex. And so far, the final winner can win "Brotherhood of the storm" - a limited OOP novel from Black Library about the White Scars.

New Rules

Now this is not "New Rules" with Bill Maher, but just to make things easier (and up your chances for winning!) these are the new rules:

#1. Between now and the date of the Giveaway*, EVERY like & share on Facebook or on your blog counts as a 'ticket' to win something from the prize pool. More shares, more tickets, better chances.

#2. Similar to our 42 Giveaways extravaganza we will keep adding more prizes to the pool. Between now and the Giveaway* the prize pool will gradually grow.

It won't be 42 giveaways this time, sorry, but I am sure I can find some rare and hoopy stuff in my 'Forbidden Closet of Mystery' for you to want to win real bad :D

* First shipping day of our Season 1 DVD Set, approx. 4-6 weeks from now

Stretchgoal YAG swag

Kickstarters often offer 'stretchgoals' - extra goodies when they reach a certain goal on pledged monies.

500 Followers StretchgoalNow, 500 followers is harder to achieve... So the giveaway must be special. Special indeed.

If we hit 500 followers by our drawing date, we will add (drumroll) a Forge World Imperial Armor Modelling Masterclass (Volume One) to the stash, one of the best modelling guides money can buy. Wait - money can buy this? That's not special you think? Well, this one happens to have been signed by the full Forge World Design team ;)

555 Likes Stretchgoal

If we get 555 likes on Facebook - something I think is very close ahead, we will add a strictly limited (1000 worldwide) Limited Edition High Elves Army Book to the prize pool. And yes, of course these army books were sold out in no time ;)Coming up - Faeit 212

I am currently in the process of conducting an Interview with Gary (Natfka) from Faeit 212 on what's the latest news on his site - I hope we can get this out by tomorrow.

Paintingbuddha.com DVD set status

We are in the home stretch for our first DVD set. So far everything is going according to our (new) plan and we expect shipping of our DVD in about 4-6 weeks. By next week we hope to give you an official release date. Keep your fingers crossed ;)

*** SHARING this post on Facebook will be your ticket to the YAG SWAG. ***